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Modern Millionaires Review

TheMMSaaS & Modern Millionaires Review (2023 Update): Are These Gurus Legit?

The new income app “MMSaaS” is a software promoted by the modern millionaires Chance & Abdul and they say you can make money online with it.

It’s essentially a CRM called “leadific” that you can sell to small business owners for a monthly rate of $299, and by doing so, start creating passive income.

But before they give you access to this CRM, you will have to join their Modern Millionaires program. So that leaves us with one question, is this opportunity the real deal?

Before writing this review, I’ve spent several hours reading through its customer complaints on various platforms such as BBB, Google, Youtube, and Trustpilot.

Now, I do want to be totally transparent in this review, so…

DISCLAIMER:

This Modern Millionaires review has been thoroughly researched with information and testimonials that are available to anyone in the public. Any conclusions drawn by myself are opinions.

PROS

Chance and Abdul have an impressive track record

No previous skills are needed

This business model has great potential

CONS

The program has a hefty price tag

There are overhead that will add up before you

Additional costs can anywhere from $300-400 per month

WHY LISTEN TO US?

My name is Josiah, and this is my Dad, Joel.

Together, we make up the team here at Scamrisk.

If you’ll let me bother you for two minutes, I’d like to quickly explain why I’m even here writing this review.

In early 2020, I had just graduated from college & had no real career prospects.

I knew I was destined for something more, but I had no clue how I was going to make it happen.

I had this sinking feeling in my gut all the time… like the “big man upstairs” had accidentally given me the version of life where I’d be mediocre forever, instead of the one where I was, ya know – happy & fulfilled.

Anyway…

I had fiddled around with some different online businesses in college:

Some random MLMs, a bit of affiliate marketing, a (failed) dropshipping store or two, all the usual suspects.

Even my dad had been involved in MLMs back in the day… selling knives & other random nonsense people (probably) didn’t need.

All I really wanted was to find something that was going to actually work for me.

Maybe those things had worked for others, but for me it all turned up a fat “0” in the bank account department.

So I searched! And searched… and searched… and searched…

And eventually, I somehow stumbled upon a program that promised to help me build an income online (read about it here if you’re curious).

I didn’t really want to be “rich”.

The thought of making a reliable $5K per month & not having to worry about clocking in to a 9-to-5 ever again was all I needed.

Sure, there were people in the program doing high-6 and low-7 figures per year… but that wasn’t what I was out for.

I just wanted to provide freedom for myself, and if I was lucky, take my family along for the ride.

Fast forward a few days and a few phone calls & I was enrolled!

Here’s the first “money making website” I put up:

I built that site in 2020, and it still makes me $1,500 per month. It’s a basic 5 page website I built based on a template the program provides.

The best part to me? My dad and I get to do it all together!

So between the:

Ease of reaching $5-$10K per month in income online

Straightforward-ness of the system to do it

Fact that I get to do it w/ my family

Is why I recommend local lead generation as my #1 business model for making money online.

Sure, it takes some work and dedication – but anyone that tells you that there’s a business out there that requires no work is selling you a lemon.

I’m not saying you need to sign up for the same program I did, but I would definitely recommend giving the business model a peek!

Modern Millionaires is an ad agency course. The basic premise is that you’ll learn how to build your own ad agency, land clients, and get them results.

Running an agency (even though they’re a bit of a commodity nowadays) isn’t a bad way to get your feet wet in the world of online business.

That said, there are a lot of moving parts with this business model:

Prospecting – you need to know how to find potential clients

Sales – you need to know how to convince those clients to give you money

Media Buying – you need to know how to run ads profitably

Copywriting – you need to know how to tailor your ad messaging for the right customers

Design – you need to know how to design ads/landing pages to maximize conversions

Email Marketing – you need to know how to follow up with prospects and customers

Automation – you need to know how to connect everything properly

Now, most course-sellers will try to make this easier on you by telling you they’ve managed to “automate everything”, offering “plug-and-play” campaigns, and “pre-built templates”.

Here’s the thing though:

Markets are always changing.

They get more savvy as time goes on.

If you buy a program with thousands of other students, where everything is built out for you, there’s an almost 100% chance those templates don’t work.

Why?

Because if thousands of other students are using those exact same “plug and play” campaigns, tens of millions of people have already seen them, reducing their effectiveness.

Not to mention, with most agency programs, the templates are actually built by some virtual assistant in the Philippines or India, and have never actually been tested in real life.

And if they have, there’s a good chance they’re extremely outdated, since most programs don’t bother updating their templates after launching. The course creator gets too busy just trying to sell to more and more students, instead of focusing on quality education.

Now, here’s the most sinister part of this whole thing:

Most course creators market their agency courses as something you can do anywhere in the world. You might hear them say things like “The world is my office” or “This is a simple passive income business”.

That’s just plain false.

Running an effective agency is in no way passive. Look at the list above, and remember that you can’t rely on pre-built templates. You’re responsible for every part of the process.

Does that really sound like a business you can do from a laptop on the beach?

See how this could be a problem?

Now, what if there was a way you could build a passive income stream that’s actually passive?

An income stream that doesn’t require:

Mastering 100 different roles

Needing to be a technology wizard

Working around the clock just to keep things from blowing up

An income stream that brings in consistent revenues every single month (from a couple thousand dollars to well over $10,000)?

An income stream you could actually build in your spare time, and grow as large or as small as you want to, without having to spend hours a day chasing, selling, or managing anything?

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, check out Digital Real Estate.

However, if you’d still like to know more about Modern Millionaires and are wondering about the MMSaaS income app, keep reading…

TheMMSaaS Income App Is It Legit?

Before we dive into the rest of Modern Millionaires and what you get in the program itself, it’s important for us to mention their SaaS update.

If you watched their webinar you’ll recall that they offered a D4U system in which you pay them $18,995 and they set up 10-30 weekly appointments where you can sell their SaaS called Leadific.

Leadific is a CRM that clients can use for their own business to track their own leads in an easy to see pipeline.

Leadific costs $299 per month and the gurus boast that you can keep 100% of that commission.

Now that all sounds great…

But as you’ll see from other consumer reviews down below, they are very disappointed in the quality of the leads and don’t make much sales.

Beyond that, try and remember why you were interested in something like modern millionaires in the first place…

You wanted financial independence.

A life with no boss.

A life with no outward control over you.

Well, Chance and Abdul are basically your new boss.

Keeping you from going out and being as independent as you really wanna be…

What you really would be is a fancy looking employee that’s really working for their white label agency.

That’s just the unfortunate truth of the matter. With them you just won’t have that independence you seek.

So What Does Selling Leadific Look Like?

According to their webinar, if you’re a good fit for their partner program, they will give you Leadific to sell to small business owners.

It’s unclear what they mean by “if you’re good fit”…

We’d wager that really means “if you have enough money”.

But they’ll set up the appointments for you!

They claim 10-30 appointments and assume you’ll close at 20%.

What this doesn’t account for though is no shows or cancellations…

Let’s say best case scenario you get 30 appointments, if industry standards are anything to go off of, you’re looking at a 50% no show rate to these set appointments.

Which slashes down your money making opportunity to 15 calls per week at best. Of those calls you have to close 3 to hit that 20% rate.

Now closing 3/15 might sound super easy…but honestly explaining techy CRM stuff to business owners is a lot harder than Chance and Abdul make it look. Not to mention 15 shows would be best case scenario…

Either way most business owners only care about one thing and that’s “how do I get more leads in the door”.

That’s why digital real estate is such a great model. Business owners are looking for people with that skill.

They aren’t necessarily looking for people trying to sell them an CRM that they won’t even know how to use…

Something else that is unclear in the webinar is whether or not that 20% close rate is a requirement or not.

This is where we start to feel MLM like vibes.

Most MLM companies require you to first buy a product demo kit and then you must use that demo kit to go out and make sales. If you don’t hit certain numbers you lose your spot as a rep.

Other MLM companies will allow you to sign up for free and they’ll send you a kit. However, if you also don’t hit certain sales numbers, the company will run your card and you’ll pay for the kit yourself.

We say all this to ask the question:

Will Chance and Abdul charge you for Leadific if you don’t hit certain sales numbers for them?

Remember, just like an MLM…you’re now employees of Chance and Abdul and businesses have to be profitable right?

If they’re sending you leads and you’re not closing them, do you think they’ll keep you around for long without somehow getting their moneys worth?

Another tough thing to grasp from their webinar is how they present selling Leadific so easy as a beginner…

You see, the modern millionaire gurus might be able to sell something like Leadific really easily themselves because both of them use CRM’s on a daily basis and know how to navigate it for a prospect.

You however, would be selling a product that you really haven’t used or know how to use proficiently.

And if it’s one thing business owners can sniff out, it’s nervous people, and they know the only reason why someone would be nervous is if they don’t have confidence in the product itself or the ability to use said product themselves.

Either way, you’ll lose the sale if you don’t have full confidence.

That’s something we would have liked to see addressed in their webinar.

But at the end of the day they are still trying to SELL YOU into their networking business so we understand why they didn’t address certain points that may cause you some doubt.

No different than when a car company selling a fast car doesn’t tell you about the awful gas mileage…

So now that we’ve talked about their “money making app” a little bit, let’s jump into the actual modern millionaires training review.

What Is Modern Millionaires?

Modern Millionaires is a program that shows you how to start your own local lead generation business by using Facebook and Google ads.

Mainly, it shows how you can make a social media marketing agency. You’ll be producing leads via Google ads which they like to refer to as “online billboards”.

While the course does discuss different niches you can go into, the primary focus for this course is lead generation as your own business and developing passive income.

We’ll get into why it isn’t as passive as they say later on in this review.

Who Are The Creators Of The Modern Millionaires Course?

The names behind the Modern Millionaires are Abdul Samed and Chance Welton

Both are unknown in this internet coaching business.

Abdul and Chance have produced several businesses from scratch. Chance is productive in marketing and advertising, whereas Abdul is more along the lines of digital businesses, lead generation, and producing income.

Abdul and Chance complement one another nicely on this particular training course, and each of their skillsets brings something different to the program.

After I’ve done the research I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re not lying about the effectiveness of the business model….but I do question their ability to coach…

I question why Forbes actually showcased them, have they completed something extraordinary? No…

I suspect that Chance and Abdul purchased that section from Forbes and that’s why it’s no longer up.

What Is The Modern Millionaires Business Model?

This training course is based upon running Google ads for business owners.

Basically, you contract yourself out and help businesses grow via marketing. Not a bad idea at all…but does this specific course carry value? I have doubts.

What Is The Modern Millionaires’ Course Content Actually Like?

Module 1: The Foundation

Within the 1st part, everything is kept simple and beginner friendly. You are going to learn exactly how to start your business from scratch.

The primary focus because of this module is going to be on choosing your niche and also creating your agency site (including purchasing your domain name). This domain name is vital in getting clients.

Also, there’ll be a considerable amount of discussion on being in the proper state of mind for operating a business.

Essentially, this particular module is about providing you with the inspiration that you simply need to have to be successful in starting an online business.

Module 2: Prospecting And Sales

It’s in module two that they begin to get into the meat and potatoes of their program. Here’s a brief overview.

This module is kickstarted with a breakdown of what prospecting truly is. When that’s out of the way, you will learn the right way to research the market you wish to work in and learn a little bit about the way an internet CRM works.

The second part is extremely significant since your entire business model is constructed around prospecting the client and generating leads; and how you can control them.

After that, they talk a little bit about how cold emailing works. This is something that’s uncommon to find in other courses like it.

Many actually ignore the entire cold emailing thing.

Therefore, I see this as a benefit from the simple fact that the Modern Millionaires Course is prepared to discuss much more special methods to produce leads.

You’ll likewise find out how to prospect with LinkedIn, how to take payments, and also how you can finalize deals with clients that you’ve picked up.

The training skims over the offer finalization part, which happens to be a disappointment because this whole business model does fall back on sales and your ability to get your current clients to spend more with you.

This may be hard in case your sales game isn’t on point.

Module 3A: Driving Traffic With Google Ads

This is definitely where the meat on the course is. In this particular module, as the title indicates, you’ll learn how you can use Google Ads to generate traffic and in turn, leads.

This is most likely the most in-depth module I’ve seen so far on Google Ads, and the powerful duo leaves no stone unturned in coaching you are shown exactly what you need to know to produce leads from it.

You’ll likewise find out about exactly how Google Analytics works into the puzzle that is starting your own business successfully.

Module 3B: Driving Traffic (Facebook)

This mini module is very much the same as the main module, just this time; you’re going to be utilizing Facebook Ads to produce leads instead.

Module 3C:

The last module brings the previous two modules together.

In this lesson, you will learn the right way to develop those leads and, ideally, hand those off to business owners that will be a paying client for you.

Module 4: Auto-Pilot

The last module teaches all the automations you can put in place to make this passive. This talks about getting employees, training them, and so on.

Unlike other courses and programs that tell you to run the business yourself for a while before automations, Chance and Abdul encourage you to outsource as soon as you can.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, I think outsourcing is good and ultimately the end goal for anyone so they can have that time freedom they desire.

On the other hand though, I do think it’s valuable to run your business and know it inside and out before putting automations in place.

I am also weary of potential upsells being the reason why they push you to outsource. I imagine they might want you to outsource to them through their own white label agency.

Leading to even more money in their pocket.

At the end of the day though, I want to believe they have the students best interest at heart.

Can You Really Make Money With Modern Millionaires?

Yes, you may really make money after purchasing the program, but it’s still lacking in information and support.

In fact, as of writing this article, I’ve seen several customer complaints about the Facebook group having no activity and very little interaction with Chance or Abdul.

Of course, you can make money, but the cost of this course is just too much for the value received in my opinion.

But before that, let me clarify why this particular business model could really allow you to make good money.

The Good & The Bad

The Good:

The Modern Millionaires program was developed by Chance and Abdul, with each accomplished rather a remarkable quantity of success in their own individual labels. They’ve showcased in Forbes.

There’s no prior experience needed for using this program – you do not have to have a background in online advertising or even have any unique marketing skills already.

The business model of the Modern Millionaires (AKA Officeless Agency) is a viable and common-sense method to make money through Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

The training is of decent quality, and you could arguably receive your money’s worth.

The Bad:

The prices seem pretty high considering you get very little access to Chance and Abdul at best.

The expenses do not stop with the training – additional costs incorporate digital advertising on your own. You will have to pay everything yourself until you have a client offsetting your costs.

There’s no promise of success – you may never see your money again.

You will find hidden costs not disclosed during your assessment phone call, and it may be an extra cost of $300 to $400 monthly.

Understanding The Modern Millionaires Business Opportunity

The majority of the business owners don’t understand how to run ads.

They don’t understand the way to create a website and draw in visitors to it.

They’re way too preoccupied for all this.

I like the business idea – I just don’t believe in the coaching.

Does Modern Millionaires And The MMSaaS Income App Have Support?

Alongside the online training course, you can find many support systems. At least systems they’re supposed to have anyway…

The main support piece you’ll be a part of is their sales call with you. However after they have your money, that’s where support arguably seems to stop.

They promise a private Facebook group and some good coaches as well, but honestly, from everything I’ve seen so far online… it doesn’t look like that kind of support is available anymore.

In fact, if you paid attention to that webinar you may have watched before reading this, you’ll notice the dates of the coaches lap top date back to November of 2020…

Pretty outdated at this point I’d say.

Why not show us what your Facebook group looks like for this year?

I think that’s a reasonable question.

What Does The Internet Have To Say About Modern Millionaires?

Online, it seems as though Chance and Abdul don’t have the best reputation. They have some 5 star reviews online, but I’m personally always skeptical of 5 star reviews that are short and simply say something along the lines of “best course ever”.

Personally, I like to head over to reddit and see what the people have to say. In my opinion, the odds of fake comments/reviews are much lower.

Here’s what I found:

Of the multiple users on the thread, one says:

“This is definitely what we call a “bait” tactic. These guys are just trying to make more money off of other peoples naivete. If I were you, I would try to reinvent the focus of your husband on something more productive. Typically, things like these are simply just scams because in reality, people succeed due to a lot of variables that they can not control that end up going their way; therefore, can not be replicated again in the exact same way at the same time and at the same place.”

Not off to a great start…another user chimes in and says:

“DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY. This course isn’t a magic pill. And despite the shiny ads, becoming a millionaire isn’t simple or fast. If you are on hard times and don’t have a few thousand on hand to burn without it torching your household finances or wrecking your relationship, DONT DO IT. The “value” they offer isn’t worth the price tag. I’ve taken a course from these guys. They’ve changed the name now but the ad strategy looks similar. Being completely honest, I dearly wish I hadn’t given them my money. For all the millionaire talk, the course was not professionally filmed or produced – it looked like it had been shot on a desktop camera or iPhone. Except for a couple of ads – I mean, those have to look super shiny – gotta look like millionaires after all…Not that that’s a deal breaker by any means. Their support wasn’t super supportive. When I needed help, one of them was almost always on some epic hike or mountain climb (no cell service), and the other was frequently on vacation. Again, that’s not a deal breaker. But the content was meandering and repetitive and not edited well. Basic takeaways: little bit on FB ads, website SEO, Insta ads. The major gist, and one I had a huge problem with, was this: whatever you don’t want to learn or feel like learning bc you’re not good at it, go hire yourself a team on Upwork/Freelancer/Fiverr. And if you’re a complete putz like I was, you’ll put it on your charge card hoping somehow you’d hire right the first time and not have people literally eat through all your credit with little to nothing to show for it. If I had known that this was the advice I was paying for, I’d be a good $8k richer right now. Again, I wish I hadn’t spent my money. There are MUCH better courses out there. Hell, I’ve take MUCH better courses out there. I’m just mad at myself for taking this course in the first place and wasting the money I couldn’t really afford to spend. Listen – if you’re in a financially desperate situation, don’t be stupid – don’t buy this course! Don’t be me. Get a steady job somewhere, doesn’t matter where. Wait tables, pour coffee, bartend. Get your money situation STABLE. BE SMART. Slow and steady wins the race. Then, if you’re able to squirrel a little money away every month to pursue your dreams, do it that way! Don’t wreck your family, don’t ruin your relationships. Don’t buy this course and sacrifice all that. It’s not a magic pill. You’re only making a couple of strangers on the internet richer with YOUR money.”

That one was pretty rough, but informative. It also confirms the nearly $9,000 price tag I listed earlier. Maybe they give you a “fast action discount” of $1000 if you join on the call?

There is one positive comment though…

“I am part of the program and I can tell you its legit! I was sure it was a scam too until I decided to go for it and there’s all sorts of training involved, it takes a lot of work and time but they aren’t giving anyone money. They’re selling a business model that they teach and then you implement. I havent made my first client yet but I can say for sure its real”

While it’s nice to see a positive review, I can’t help but notice that they said they haven’t landed a client yet. Usually when people join something new, they are pretty excited. Right now I wonder if the user holds the same excitement despite no clients…

Is Modern Millionaires And The New MMSaaS Income App A Scam?

So, is Modern Millionaires and the New MMSaaS Income App a scam?

Not technically.

You can make money with this program, but it’s definitely not as easy as Chance And Abdul makes it sound.

There’s a ton of work to be done upfront, no real guarantee of success, and – most importantly – running an agency is extremely active income (NOT passive).

Now, there’s nothing wrong with front-loading the work and making the money later.

But if you’re getting into this game to live life on your terms, travel the world, and generate passive or semi-passive income from anywhere, then this isn’t for you.

What if, instead, you could put in a couple hours a day (in your spare time) to build a single digital asset, and your reward was a $500 to $2,000 payment that came in every single month?

And what if you could get started today and have your first payment in a week?

And what if you could double it next week?

Well, that’s the power of Digital Real Estate.

And, unlike a traditional ad agency, you can legitimately do this from anywhere. It’s a true lifestyle business.

Your laptop and an internet connection is all you need.

Some of the most successful students in this program run their entire 6-figure businesses from:

A camper in the middle of the woods

A beach chair on the water in Mexico

A small villa in Greece

They’re able to travel around, living their lives first, and focusing on their income second.

Because even if they stop working for an extended period of time, the money keeps coming in.

So adventure, memories, and experience are the top priority.

And they never have to worry about how to pay for the next trip, or consider asking for time off.

If this sounds more like the type of life you want to lead, just click here to find out more about Digital Real Estate.

How Much Does Modern Millionaires Cost?

According to their webinar, they currently have 3 different pricing tiers.

The first pricing tier is what they call their “DIY Package”.

This package is listed for $7,995.

In this package you’ll receive all the training videos, access to the private Facebook group, and livestreams.

You will not get one on one coaching however and are left to “do it yourself” as the name suggests.

The second pricing tier is what they call their “DWY Package”.

This package is listed for $12,995.

In this package you’ll receive everything you do with the DIY package, but additionally you’ll receive some smaller, more private group coaching from one of Chance and Abdul’s coaches.

This however, is still not one on one coaching and earns the term “done with you” as the name implies.

Their 3rd and final pricing tier is what they their “DFY Package”.

This package is listed for $19,995.

In this package you’ll get everything from the first two packages plus one on one coaching from a coach assigned to you by Chance and Abdul and the opportunity to sell their Leadific SaaS product by getting leads they generated, sent straight to you to close. They claim 10-30 calls per week.

So what do I think about all this?

Well to be honest, the pricing is fairly steep. And even at the highest pricing tier, you still do not get one on one coaching from Abdul and Chance themselves.

That is certainly disappointing in my opinion.

Instead, you are handed over to a coach that is promoted as someone who has their own agency that earns 10k per month…but there is not exactly any confirmation on that.

If they do run their own 10k per month agency and have decided to coach you, that’s great, but there is also the chance that they are just people hired by Chance and Abdul to hold your hand no different than college professors do.

And you know the old saying…

“Those who can’t do, teach”.

Ultimately my main issue with these different levels of pricing is that NONE of them provide that one on one interaction with Chance and Abdul.

You see them on the front end of their ads. Is that the last time you’ll ever see them?

How You Can Purchase The Modern Millionaires Training Course?

Unfortunately the only method of purchase for Modern Millionaires is to hop on a call with one of their sales reps after you go through their long webinar styled sales funnel.

If for whatever reason you forget what the price is, the sales guy will direct you back to the webinar and then tell you to call them back.

I think this is kind of ridiculous and comes off to me as that they only care about money.

I do not like it.

However, sales process aside, they use this call to find what’s best for your budget.

That being said, the more money you have, the more they try to push you to the higher priced offer where you are able to sell Leadific for them.

As a final note on the purchasing of Modern Millionaires, their sales process in my opinion focuses more on getting money out of your pocket and into theirs instead of focusing on educating you on digital marketing and properly starting your own online business.

Are There Alternatives To Modern Millionaires?

Yes, there are plenty of other business models to choose from if you want to pursue this making money online. Here are just a few:

Local Lead Generation

Digital Real Estate

SEO

Real Estate

Website Building

What Is Our #1 Recommendation For Making Money Online In 2023?

The ScamRisk team has spent months researching, reviewing, and vetting dozens of business models and thousands of programs.

While there may be no “perfect business”, the research IS conclusive:

Digital Real Estate is the #1 online business model for those just starting out.

Whether you’ve never made a dollar online, or you’ve been in this space for a while but never really “made it,” Digital Real Estate is for you.

Why?

1) It’s Flexible: got an hour a day? You can do this. Ready to drop everything else and dive in full time? You can do this. Yes, the more time you put in, the faster you see results. But even with a little time each day, you can move the needle in a Digital Real Estate business.

And because this system is so flexible, you don’t have to constantly be working to make more money. It’s called PASSIVE INCOME because if you stop working, the money doesn’t.

Imagine taking 3 months off to just tour around Europe, rent a cabin in the woods to write a book, hike the Appalachian Trail, or live on the beach and surf all day.

This is only possible if you have an income stream that’s not tied to your time.

2) You Own & Control EVERYTHING: With an ad agency, you don’t really own anything. You’re a hired gun for clients, and entirely at their mercy.

Sure, you own your agency, but if your business grinds to a halt once you stop working, all you really have is a self-created job.

With Digital Real Estate (a passive income stream), you own all the assets, which means you have all the power and all the control.

3) Little To No Startup Costs: It’s possible to get into Digital Real Estate with zero dollars upfront. Because, using the strategies outlined in this program, you can get a client to pay you BEFORE spending a penny out of your own pocket…even before you do any work.

Even without getting paid in advance, you can have your first Digital Rental Property up, running, and generating profits for less than $100.

4) Easy To Duplicate: Ok, here’s the best part: once you have your first Digital Rental Property up and running, you can literally DOUBLE your income with a few clicks, a couple keystrokes, and a single phone call (and you don’t actually need the phone call).

Remember: each Digital Rental Property is worth $500 to $2,000 a month in semi-passive income (over 95% profit). Every time you decide to create another one and increase your income, it gets easier.

Because you have more knowledge, more experience, more results, and more momentum.

If you wanted to double your income with an ad agency, you’d have to double your clients OR double the monthly payment of your existing customers. And, guaranteed that’s a lot harder than a few clicks and a few minutes of your life.

5) Make Money Helping Real People: This part is what makes it all worth it. With Digital Real Estate, you’re actually helping people by solving your clients’ biggest problem:

Small, local businesses need more customers, and with Digital Real Estate, you are unleashing a flood of happy, paying customers for these businesses.

You make money by helping them make money.

Not a big, faceless corporation either…a small business owner who’s using that money to put food on the table for their family, start a college fund for their kids, or take care of a sick parent. Once you see how Digital Real Estate makes a real impact in the lives of real people, you’ll sleep like a baby with a big smile on your face.

Now, the choice is yours. You could continue browsing, looking at opportunities like Modern Millionaires which could one day make you money.

You could continue researching, never making a decision.

OR, you could take a look inside, consider what you really want, and join a program that makes your dreams a reality especially if you put in massive and consistent effort. At the same time, joining a community of over 2,000 successful students that are living life on their own terms thanks to Digital Real Estate.

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pauldeckerus · 6 years

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Nikon Z7 Field Report: Too Many Good Things to Not Like It

Earlier this year I got a phone call from Japan asking whether I would be interested in working on yet another important global introduction campaign for a new Nikon product. As I very much enjoyed creating the Hercules Rising night time-lapse for the introduction of the Nikon D850, I said yes.

My wife Daniella and I plan our photo tours two years ahead and we travel/shoot nine months a year, so it was a real challenge again to wiggle it into our schedule, but we somehow managed to make it fit. What followed were several secretive Skype calls and emails via encrypted servers in Transylvania, and eventually I found out what the new product was: the Nikon Z7 mirrorless camera.

I was instantly excited about this project, knowing how incredibly important this introduction would be and that I would be one of only very few photographers in the world to use Nikon’s first full frame mirrorless camera.

Like with the D850, I was given free choice as to where I wanted to shoot – the perfect assignment! One of the things that stuck with me after hearing all the features of the Z7, was the oversized lens mount and how it enabled the engineers to create new lenses that would produce edge-to-edge sharpness. I then decided to test this new level of sharpness by taking the Z7 to the sharpest landscape on this planet: the Grand Tsingy in Madagascar.

This place is so razor-sharp, that I literally had to climb up and down using construction workers’ gloves as to not cut myself on those limestone needles. But Madagascar is a unique place that has a lot more to offer, so I also decided to include the location where I shot my first National Geographic publication more than 10 years ago: the Allée des Baobabs, aka the Avenue of baobabs. I managed to get three Z7 prototypes for this project, which started in late May.

Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth.

As always, I spent a great deal of time figuring out the best shooting locations and ways to create unique images. Great photographs start with great ideas, so that’s what I consider the most important part of any shoot: the pre-visualization. During my research, I noticed that it’s very hard to get a proper sense of scale when looking at the tsingy images that I found online. As it’s physically impossible to walk on top of 99.99% of the tsingy, putting a little person in there for scale was not an option, unless of course that person was a mountaineer. And so it started. I found a climber with a death wish who was very excited to give this a try, so the only challenge that was left was the fact that I’m afraid of heights. Minor detail.

How to climb giant limestone steak knives. Nikon Z7, 24-70mm f/4.0, 1/4 @ f/11, ISO 100

I should add that this was by no means a one-man show. As always, I did this project together with my wife Daniella who is critically important for keeping me on track, for solving logistical challenges, and for second opinions. But we were also accompanied by a video team to shoot the behind the scenes video clips, four porters, two guides, a location manager, a producer, an ad agency representative, and three security guys, and probably even more people.

I’m not used to working as part of a herd, but in hindsight, I could never have pulled this off without them – thank you all!

The Nikon Z7 Madagascar team.

Note that this is not going to be a technical review with lots of numbers and charts – there are already quite a few of those around and I don’t like numbers and charts anyway. This is just my personal experience with three Z7 prototypes and the three new S-lenses during 12 days in Madagascar.

First impressions

My very first impression of the Z7 was that it was very black. Reason being that Nikon had carefully masked every detail on the camera with gaffer tape, in an effort to make it look as anonymous as possible :-) After all, the places we were going to visit are open to the general public and it was critically important that no one would see (or worse: photograph!) this new camera.

My second impression was a combination of three: size, weight, and feel. The first two were expected – this being a mirrorless camera means it’s smaller and lighter than a DSLR. But I use several DSLRs and they’re not all created equal in the weight department.

I consider my D5 and D4s to be heavy, and my D850, D500, and D810 are lightweight compared to those two. Well, the Z7 basically makes the D850 feel like a German tank. From WW I. What truly surprised me, was how the Z7 feels: like a DSLR. Nikon’s ergonomics are unrivaled, and with the Z7 it’s no different.

My main concern with mirrorless cameras has always been that they feel like vulnerable toys, impossible to operate if you have big hands, while wearing gloves, or if you don’t have a magnifying glass handy. Nikon resisted the temptation to simply shrink a DSLR, and instead designed it from scratch and gave it a really beefy grip. The moment I picked it up for the first time, it felt familiar and in a very good way.

Buttons, dials and menus

Apart from the body being a lot smaller than what I’m used to, there are not many surprises on the outside. All the buttons are in the right places. On the front there are two function buttons that you can program. I typically use the top one for depth of field preview and the bottom one for the virtual horizon, but I no longer need to use the DOF preview button as the EVF will always show you exactly what you’re gonna get. Look at that mount, it’s humongous!

On the back, the row of buttons we’re used to seeing on the left are obviously gone – lack of real estate. Most of them have been moved to the lower right corner and all buttons have kept their original size. At the top of the viewfinder is an eye sensor – placing your eye to the viewfinder activates this sensor, switching the display from the monitor to the viewfinder.

You can use the DISP button to view or hide indicators in the monitor or viewfinder. The menus are no different from usual. The first thing I always do is move all the items I use regularly into My Menu and assign it to a customizable button, which saves me a lot of time in the field.

The big dial on the left shows three user setting modes: U1, U2, and U3. Gone are those dreaded menu banks! You can assign frequently used settings to these positions for quick recall. Although I haven’t used these options yet, I will most likely put my landscape settings under U1, wildlife under U2, and night photography under U3.

I also quite liked the main dial on the right being exposed on the top, unlike all my DSLRs. With gloves on this will be more easy to operate. The top LCD screen is much smaller than I’m used to, but all the essentials are in there. From this angle, you can clearly see that beefy grip. The flange distance is only 16mm.

All in all, I feel that Nikon has done a great job with the design and ergonomics. This camera may be compact and lightweight, it still feels like a DSLR.

The FTZ-adapter

To say that I was curious what the FTZ-adapter looked like and how it performed would be an understatement. I had visions of poorly performing teleconverters (I have a drawer full of those) that cause poor autofocus, take light away and degrade image quality, so I was skeptical. But now I know that’s because I didn’t fully comprehend the concept.

The Z7 not only has a massive new Z-mount, it also has a tiny flange distance. Flange is the distance between the sensor and the outside edge of the lens mount. Regular F-mount lenses have been designed for the typical flange distance of a DSLR, so they wouldn’t work on a camera with a different flange distance, even if I had the same lens mount.

So this adapter does two things: it converts the Z-mount into an F-mount, and it increases the flange distance to that of a DSLR. This also means that no glass is needed inside the adapter, unlike a TC. Understanding this, it makes perfect sense that there is no loss of quality or performance when using my F-mount lenses on the Z7.

During this trip, I have used the FTZ-adapter with the following lenses: 14-24/2.8, 20/1.8, 24/1.8, 24-70/2.8, 70-200/2.8, 180-400/4.0. It has performed well with all these lenses. With this simple adapter, you can basically use 360 Nikon F-mount lenses, of which 90 will autofocus. But not only your Nikon F-mount lenses will still work, also any third party F-mount lenses like those from Sigma or Tamron.

Another big advantage of the FTZ-adapter is that it will add vibration reduction (in-camera image stabilization) to all your non-VR lenses!

Nikon Z7 + FTZ-adapter = a lot of choices.

I had one issue with the adapter though: at the bottom, there is this square looking part that will end up very close to the body of the Z7. I noticed that some of my generic camera plates, the ones that ‘hug’ the bottom of the body to prevent the plate from twisting, sort of wedge in between the body and the adapter, pushing the bottom of the adapter away from the camera. This didn’t look good and I was afraid I would damage the adapter or performance of it, so I ended up using completely flat plates.

In-camera image stabilization

The Z-series bodies are the first interchangeable lens Nikons to come with an in-body vibration reduction (VR) mechanism. This offers compensation in 5 directions and the effect is supposedly equivalent to a shutter speed up to appr. 5 stops faster. The in-body VR is effective when paired with non-VR Nikkor F-mount lenses by using the FTZ-adapter. That means that all your non-VR lenses suddenly get VR when used on the Z6 or Z7 – pretty cool.

Nikon lenses that already have VR (pitch and yaw) will get the added benefit of roll axis, which means that both in-body image stabilization, along with lens VR will work simultaneously to get the best out of the two. I’m addicted to my tripod, so I typically only shoot handheld when I’m shooting wildlife that’s running or flying all over the place, or when I’m just scouting and taking test shots. I have not tested this in-depth, but I’ve seen inside the viewfinder that it works well: a very steady image, and the shots were all sharp.

That’s me, handholding a Z7 with FTZ-adapter and 70-200/2.8, using both the lens VR and in-body VR.

The EVF

Apart from the obvious size and weight reduction, the EVF is clearly the biggest difference with all my DSLRs. To be honest, it took me some time to get used to. There were times that I cursed it (mostly because of operator error), but most of the time I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What I really loved is the fact that you can superimpose your histogram inside the viewfinder, so I no longer need to take my eye off the viewfinder to check my exposures. For wildlife, this is particularly useful, because lowering the camera to check your exposure might coincide with the most spectacular action ever photographed in the history of wildlife photography, and you’d miss it.

What’s also great, is that you can not only directly see the effect of the aperture you’ve selected, but also of your white balance. I usually just shoot my daytime images in auto white balance and fine tune it later, but sometimes I don’t like what I’m seeing and I tweak it in-camera to give me a more pleasing result on location.

The EVF also rules when it comes to precision focusing. When you focus, you can actually zoom in on your focus point and manually fine-tune the focus – while looking through the viewfinder. I think that’s awesome. And to make it even better, you can use focus peaking to help you get things critically sharp.

Nikon Z7, 24-70mm f/4.0 S, 1/160 @ f/16, ISO 200

But there’s more. When you’re shooting in bright conditions, it can be hard to check the results on your monitor. Well, that’s no longer an issue, because your image will show up inside your viewfinder. For this shot, I wanted to use a reflector to bounce some fill light on her face to better show her face paint, but I didn’t want it to be too strong. In bright daylight, it would be impossible to check the subtle differences between my exposures on the monitor. This is where the EVF really shines. It’s like using a Hoodman without having to use a Hoodman.

To the left of the viewfinder (more or less where the on-camera flash button usually is on my DSLRs) is the Monitor Mode button. There are a couple of different settings for how the EVF behaves in combination with the monitor, for instance: the display can automatically switch from the monitor to the viewfinder when you place your eye to the viewfinder, and back from the viewfinder to the monitor when you take your eye away. Or you can set it to prioritize the viewfinder, making it behave like a DSLR: placing your eye to the viewfinder turns the viewfinder on and taking your eye away turns the viewfinder off.

In photo mode, the monitor remains blank. Having only used DSLRs for so many years, I was often surprised by what was happening with the viewfinder/monitor, simply because I had set it to the wrong mode or forgot that I was shooting with a mirrorless camera. Eventually, I got the hang of it and moving back to my DSLRs after the project felt like going back in time – I really missed the EVF.

Nikon Z7 with FTZ-adapter, 14-24mm f/2.8, 0.5 sec @ f/11, ISO 64, focus stack

However, there was one thing that I really struggled with: the EVF brightness. When you look through the viewfinder of a DSLR, you see the scene at the same brightness as with your bare eye. With an EVF that’s different because you’re basically looking at a miniature Live View monitor, and you need to set the brightness level for that yourself. Several times I found myself being fooled by the brightness of the EVF, tricking me into thinking that I shot a nice and bright image with tons of shadow detail, whereas in reality, the image was actually horribly underexposed.

While it is true that one look at the histogram would tell me this, in the heat of the moment that sometimes did not compute. An overly dark scene like the one above will easily look well exposed in the EVF, but later turn out to be way too dark. There have been moments where I was looking at the image in the viewfinder and then to the histogram next to it, and realized those did not seem to belong together – the image looked so much brighter than what it should look like according to the histogram.

At first, I started to change the brightness level of the EVF to match what I was seeing, but that didn’t prove to be a definitive solution either. I ended up more or less ignoring the brightness level of the image in the EVF and only use it for composition, light direction, focus, depth of field, and instead relying on the histogram for exposure. Overall, I would say the default setting of the EVF is too bright.

Using the EVF you can also use Silent Photography mode, without first having to switch to Live View like with my D850.

Another thing I really enjoyed is the fact that the autofocus points now cover 90% of the frame and that you can focus all the way to the edge. Even with pro-level DSLRs the AF system still limits AF points to the central area of the frame, which means you will often have to focus and recompose or use Live View. With the Z7 I did not need to take my eye from the viewfinder as I could basically focus anywhere in the frame.

In the field

The contents of my f/stop Tilopa camera bag changed each day depending on the shoot, but this is about average.

On the top left there’s my D850 with a 24mm f/1.8 and an SB-5000, next to it a 14-24mm f/2.8 F-mount lens. In the lower left corner, there’s a Z7 with 24-70mm f/4 S lens and the 35mm f/1.8 S just below it. In the lower right corner is another Z7 body with the FTZ-adapter and a 70-200mm f/2.8 F-mount lens. When I snapped this image with my iPhone, the third Z7 was on a tripod with my 180-400mm f/4.0 and another FTZ-adapter. The 50mm f/1.8 S was in a different bag.

Autofocus performance

The thing I was most interested in when it comes to autofocus, was how my F-mount lenses would perform with the FTZ-adapter. I found that it was easy to get focus and keep it. The good thing is that the camera can still focus in very dimly lit situations, up to -4 EV. I created a little animated GIF of one of my last shoots.

9 Frames per second (animated GIF, click on image). Nikon Z7 with FTZ-adapter, 180-400mm f/4.0 @ 560mm, 1/100 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 4000

After several failed attempts, I finally managed to find a lemur on the limestone needles, but the sun had already set and the light was quite murky. Focusing with the 180-400mm f/4.0 and the FTZ-adapter was not a problem. Nikon engineers had advised me to turn VR on the lens off, but I saw no difference between the shots where I had turned it on. I actually like to turn it on, because the scene inside the viewfinder looks so much less wobbly.

The Z7 can shoot 9 fps, and that’s exactly what you see here: this animated GIF consists of one burst of 9 images. But although it works well, autofocus is organized differently on the Z7. There is no dedicated autofocus mode button on the front of the camera anymore to switch between the various autofocus point modes, and some of those modes have disappeared.

For instance, there’s no group mode, and no D21 or D51 – only D9. I shoot D9 most of the time myself when I’m in AF-C, so it’s not a deal breaker for me, but it’s worth noting. You don’t need to enter a menu to change autofocus point modes though, because you can assign a custom button for this purpose – like the movie record button. Works like a charm.

I must add that I haven’t used the Z7 much on moving subjects (the wildlife wasn’t cooperating, as usual), so I haven’t been able to properly test the autofocus for wildlife. From my limited experience, I can say that the AF is not as fast as my D850 and that tracking a moving subject is more challenging.

Another thing is that the buffer is not particularly large, so don’t expect to shoot a cheetah chasing a gazelle with the Z7 (23 images when shooting lossless compressed 12-bit) as you will only be able to shoot for 2.5 seconds before the buffer fills up – a bit like the D750.

Nikon Z7 with 35mm f/1.8 S, 8 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 3200

Low light and high ISO performance

I like shooting before the sun is out and after it has set, and I also greatly enjoy shooting at night. Needless to say that I was very interested to see how the Z7 would perform in low light conditions. The low-light AF performance of the D850 is nothing short of amazing, but the Z-series takes this even further.

Hidden under a11 in your Custom Settings menu is the option Low-light AF. When turned on you’ll get even more accurate focus, providing you’re in AF-S. The autofocus becomes a bit slower, but the result is pretty amazing. For the image above, I was actually able to use the Low-light AF to focus on the branches of the largest tree. The tent would have been easier, but my depth of field was not sufficient to get that big tree in focus as well when I tried.

Nikon Z7, 35mm f/1.8 S, 16 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 5000

Here’s another example where I shot at night with the same 35/1.8 S lens. Focusing was not an issue here, because I could just use the bright light in front of the tree. When you’re using a 35mm lens for shooting the night sky, you have to watch your exposures – shooting longer than 15 seconds will already show some star trailing. With a 14mm I can shoot this scene at ISO 3200 because I can expose as long as 25 seconds, but with the 35mm I had to go up to ISO 5000 to get a similar exposure at 16 seconds. And 16 seconds was also the maximum time that my assistant could sit still during the entire exposure. The resulting image quality looks very similar to that of my D850.

Nocturnal selfie. Nikon Z7 with FTZ-adapter, 14-24mm f/2.8, 5 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 3200

When Kazuo Ushida, the president of Nikon, presented the Z-series system during the global live event, this image was displayed behind him. Well, they used the completely unprocessed version – I did a perspective correction on those trees (they were quite heavily converging because of my 14-24 pointing upwards). For this image, I also used the Low-light AF to help me focus on that tree on the right (and by shining a small headlight on it). It’s one of my favorite images of the trip because it’s so different from what’s already out there, and from what I’ve shot there myself 10 years ago.

It’s not easy to create something unique at an iconic location like this, but therein lies a big artistic challenge – and I really enjoy those. This was shot on a very early morning, and the light was changing rapidly. I had to work super fast because I wanted to have some color in the sky combined with the light beams. This moment was gone in like 5 minutes.

Overall, I found that the EVF was the only challenge when shooting at night. Our eyes are so amazing at picking up the tiniest details in the landscape even during a new moon, there is no EVF that can match that.

When using a regular viewfinder, once you’re eyes are used to the darkness you will be able to see the landscape even when the only light source is the stars. I usually switch off the camera so that I don’t get blinded by the bright numbers inside the viewfinder, and then fine-tune my composition. With an EVF this is not possible, after all: it’s an illuminated micro monitor. In total darkness, it will always be too bright, and it will never be able to show the amount of detail that your eyes can see at night.

This is not a shortcoming of just the Z7, but a general phenomenon for all mirrorless cameras. When you look through the EVF on a really dark night, it’s hard to see what you’re doing.

Diffraction compensation. Nikon Z7 with FTZ-adapter, 70-200mm f/2.8, 1/80 sec @ f/22, ISO 1600

Diffraction compensation

We all know that shooting with very small apertures will deteriorate the quality of the sharpness: diffraction. Most serious landscape photographers will therefore choose to shoot several exposures at different focal distances at a larger aperture – focus stacking. But focus stacking requires additional post-processing time, and ideally you don’t want anything to move within your frame.

The Z7 has an option called Diffraction Compensation, and I was super curious how it would perform. While climbing in the tsingy, I saw an interesting backlit tree which contrasted nicely with the dark limestone surrounding it. I could not get any closer to it, and the only way to frame it the way I liked was to use my 70-200/2.8 at 125mm.

Getting sufficient depth of field was a real challenge here, and I would usually have gone for a focus stack in this situation. However, there was a fair amount of wind, so the leaves were moving, and I figured this would be a good moment to test the Diffraction Compensation option.

I stopped the lens down to f/22 which gave me the DOF I needed and took two shots: one with Diffraction Compensation set to ON and one to OFF. When I compared the two images, there was a subtle but noticeable difference – this option really works. Shooting a focus stack will still give you better results, but if there’s no time or you just don’t feel like it: this is a useful option.

Enhanced Focus Stacking

Since I already mentioned focus stacking (Nikon calls it ‘focus shift’), the D850 was the first DSLR to have this as an automated option, but the Z7 takes this even further. With the new ‘Peaking Stack Image’ function you will be able to see a monochrome preview of the focus stack you are able to capture – pretty awesome. If you like to be close to your subject and want everything in focus, then focus stacking is the way to go to get maximum depth of field at maximum quality. Ever since I got my D850 I have been using the automated Focus Shift function regularly, and this latest enhancement has made it even nicer to use.

Sharp against sharp. Nikon Z7 with FTZ-adapter, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/6 sec @ f/11, ISO 64

For this particular image, I placed my Z7 and 14-24 inside a very prickly cactus, and the only way to get front to back sharpness is by shooting a focus stack. I ended up shooting an automated focus shift sequence of 16 images that I later combined using Helicon Focus. The cactus needles in the front and the limestone needles in the background are all razor sharp. I should add that working with a much smaller body like the Z7 makes it a lot easier to set up shots like this.

Wireless Speedlight control

I love my Speedlights as they allow me to create my own light. In that sense, a flash really is an important creative tool for me. When working on my shot list before the start of the trip, I thought about creating an environmental portrait of a local girl using my Speedlights to create selective lighting and drama.

What surprised me when I arrived at this location, is that many of the young girls paint their faces with a yellow ‘paint’ that is made from a special type of wood. This isn’t merely decorative but also applied to protect the skin from the damage of the sun as well as ward off insects such as mosquitoes. It is also believed to make your skin more beautiful, much like a face cream would. The mask is known as Masonjaony.

Nikon Z7, 50mm f/1.8 S, 1/100 @ f/1.8, ISO 400

The idea was to use the 50/1.8 S lens to throw the background out of focus and create a nice contrast with the sharp subject in the foreground. I waited for the sun to set and for the afterglow to hit the trees with beautiful low contrast warm light, and I set the Speedlight to a very low output.

I triggered the SB-5000 with the WR-R10 transceiver. That thing is very small and connects directly into the side port of the camera. The flash settings I controlled with the in-camera flash menu that I added to My Menu for quick and easy access. The detail on her face is amazing, and I love the quality of the light created by the Speedlight.

In order to be as flexible as possible and work fast – I really wanted to keep some color in the sky – I decided to shoot everything handheld. I don’t usually shoot people, but for this project, I decided that was something that I needed to do to add some more life to the landscape. I was way out of my comfort zone here, but I fully enjoyed the experience and I strongly believe that it actually makes you a better photographer if you step out of your safe space every now and then.

Edge to edge sharpness and tons of detail. Nikon Z7 with FTZ-adapter, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1 sec @ f/11, ISO 100.

Endless detail

One of the coolest things to do when you’re shooting 45+MP is to zoom in on your image and admire the detail. With the new S-lenses that detail now goes all the way up into the corners and to the edges. With the Z7 you can now control the amount of detail via the Picture Control menu. You already know that you can tweak these picture controls, and now even more so than ever.

If you want to adjust your selected picture control, you can now choose Quick Sharp, Sharpening, Mid-range Sharpening, and Clarity. Mid-range Sharpening is particularly interesting because you can adjust sharpness according to the fineness of the patterns and lines in mid-tones affected by Sharpening and Clarity. And when you’re in the Picture Control menu, you will also find the Creative Picture Control where you can choose from a bunch of effects, similar to the ones in Instagram.

The image above is probably one of the best examples of what this camera is capable of: edge to edge sharpness with tons of detail. To get this shot I was perched on top of one of those nasty limestone needles, pointing my 14-24 straight down into the abyss – not the greatest experience if you’re afraid of heights. But you have to suffer for your art, or so they say.

Nikon Z-series: the S-lenses.

The Lenses

During this project I have used a wide variety of lenses; F-mount lenses as well as the new S-lenses that were specifically designed for this new system. The idea behind the large Z-mount was to create a future-proof mount that is large enough to accommodate modern lens designs that can be as fast as f/0.95.

The new Nikon Z-mount is 17% larger than the trusty F-mount, thanks to its inner diameter of 55mm. This, together with a 16mm flange distance will allow Nikon to make lenses that were much more difficult to design with the Nikon F-mount. One of the objectives was to design lenses that would deliver edge to edge sharpness. This has clearly been something that I have tested constantly by checking the edges and the corners after every shot. And I have to say – the results are very good.

Of the three S-lenses that I have used, the 24-70/4.0 is by far my favorite. I love zoom lenses for the creative flexibility that they offer, and this lens was also the widest of the three which I often preferred for the landscape shots. Comparing the three, the 24-70/4.0 also seemed the sharpest to me.

Nikon Z7, 24-70mm f/4.0 S, 1/100 sec @ f/8, ISO 320, SB-5000. The birds are not pasted in.

Overall, the lenses are all compact and lightweight and nicely balanced on the Z7. For the image above I really wanted those grasses in the foreground to be razor sharp all the way up to the corners, and at the same time have the tree and the background crispy sharp as well.

Looking through the EVF, I was able to zoom in on those areas and check them for sharpness. Each click of the aperture dial would result in a live DOF change inside the viewfinder – very useful. To add some fill light on the girl in red, I used my SB-5000 that I triggered with the WR-R10 transceiver. That thing is very small and connects directly into the side port of the camera.

The Z-series feature an on-sensor hybrid autofocus system, which works very differently compared to the traditional phase detection autofocus system on Nikon DSLRs. There is no need for a secondary mirror, and this basically eliminates all AF micro-adjustment issues that many photographers spend so much time on (AF fine tune). By incorporating phase detection pixels right on the sensor, Nikon is able to perform focus on the image sensor without relying on a secondary focusing system: no more lens calibration necessary!

The Nikon S-Line road map.

Nikon is planning to release between 4-6 new S-lenses per year, and I’m especially looking forward to both the 20/1.8 S and the 14-24/2.8 S. I have extensively used my 14-24/2.8 F-mount lens on this trip with great results, but that’s neither a lightweight nor a compact super wide angle zoom, and I can only imagine what a killer landscape photography combo the Z7 with a compact and lightweight 14-24/2.8 S-lens will be.

Image quality

From my limited experience with this camera and the large variety of lenses I have used, I can say that the image quality is superb. All my F-mount lenses performed just as good as on my DSLRs, and some of them got VR as a bonus via the FTZ-adapter (AF-S 14-24/2.8 VR!). The S-lenses are all very sharp, compact and lightweight. Colors, contrast, detail, and sharpness of the images are all very good and comparable to the D850.

For the image below I wanted to shoot straight into the sun with the 24-70mm f/4.0 S to create some graphic silhouettes, but zoom lenses are more prone to flaring in those conditions. I was happy to see that there was very little to no lens flare, even with the sun away from the center of the frame. In some ways, the Z7 felt like a D850 Light in terms of image quality, but that would actually not be fair to the Z7 because it is a fantastic camera that even has some features and advantages that the D850 does not have.

Shooting into the sun. Nikon Z7, 24-70mm f/4.0, 1/640 @ f/8.0, ISO 64

Weather proof

This is a biggie. No matter how great a camera is, if it can’t survive harsh conditions I won’t use it. This has always been the main complaint I’ve heard from our photo tour participants who are shooting mirrorless: the cameras struggle in dusty/humid/cold conditions and become unreliable. As I spend most of my time in dusty/humid/cold conditions, I’ve never been really interested in going mirrorless.

When I first looked at the Z7 I was still skeptical, but that was mostly because it is so much smaller and lighter and you sort of expect it to be less weatherproof and reliable than a DSLR. During this project, I have photographed in blistering heat, high humidity during the night, in dense fog, and in very dusty conditions. At no point did these conditions affect the cameras, only me (I forgot to bring a down jacket for the cold nights).

Nikon Z7 with FTZ-adapter and 70-200mm f/2.8

The tilt-screen of the Z7 seems to be the same as the one on the D850, which works fine but I’m always worried when I flip it open and look at the intricate construction – I’m always afraid to damage it. Funny enough I let my D850 crash onto the ground during the Hercules Rising time-lapse project with the tilt-screen open, and although it was severely bent out of shape, I simply bend it back and it just kept on working fine. And so did the camera.

I have an angle finder that I use a lot for shooting from low angles, but I find myself using the tilt-screen more and more now, also on this trip. The Malagassy dust did not affect the mechanism. I would have loved the tilt screen to also tilt sideways when shooting verticals, though.

Nikon Z7, 24-70mm f/4 S, 1/125 @ f/8, ISO 64

The One Card Slot Controversy

The trolls really had a field day with this one. To be honest, I don’t understand why there is only one card slot as both the Sonys have two, but at the same time, it is not an issue for me. I always set the second card slot to ‘overflow’ anyway, so the one card slot will have zero impact on my workflow.

I get it that wedding photographers get freaked out by the idea of not having a second card as a backup option, but at least that one card slot is for the mighty XQD card (which will eventually be compatible with CFexpress as well, after a firmware update). They’re much more solid, durable and capable than SD cards and I’ve never had one crash on me – as opposed to CF and SD.

Also, don’t forget that the Sony A7 II and A7R II had just one card slot, and it’s only the most recent Sony’s that have a second SD card slot, barely more than a year ago. Even the new Canon R only has a single SD card slot, so it’s clearly not that unusual.

Nikon Z7: one XQD card slot.

Battery life

There have been some wild stories on the Internet regarding the supposedly poor battery life of the Z7. This is not my experience. As a matter of fact, both Z bodies use a similar battery as the D850. During the Z7 project, I have used three Z7 bodies extensively and never did I have to use more than one battery per day, so the CIPA numbers seem extremely conservative to me.

However, your camera’s battery life depends on many factors: temperature, live view, image review, monitor brightness, standby time, EVF use, EVF brightness, focusing, VR, etc. If I’m shooting polar bears in the Arctic with my 180-400/4.0 in sub-zero temperatures, using AF-C and VR continuously while looking through my EVF and regularly reviewing my images on the LCD screen, that will seriously impact battery life. But for the Hercules Rising time-lapse project for last year’s introduction of the Nikon D850, I used similar batteries and never had any issues either. I already have quite a few of those batteries, so I won’t need to buy extra when using the Z7.

I was happy to hear there will be a battery pack available soon. I use battery packs on all my DSLRs for increased battery life and better handling when shooting verticals, so I’m definitely going to get me one of those for my Z7.

Nikon Z7 with FTZ-adapter, 180-400mm f/4.0, 1/100 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 6400

The End

That’s it. I can go on forever, but I’ve been told that’s gonna bore people to death. I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences with the Z7 and I hope you will someday be able to try one yourself. It’s a really great camera that has earned a spot in my camera bag. No, it doesn’t have eye AF and only one card slot, but those are not even minor disappointments in my opinion.

There are simply too many good things about this camera to not like it, and I haven’t even talked about the customizable lens control ring, 4K and 8K time-lapse, 120p slow motion full frame video at full HD, fast start-up time, no low pass filter, fast XPEED 6 processor, and a whole bunch of other stuff. The next time I go hiking in the mountains or the desert, there is absolutely no question which camera I will put in my backpack.

About the author: Marsel van Oosten is a professional nature photographer from The Netherlands. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Together with his wife Daniella Sibbing, Van Oosten runs Squiver, a company that offers specialized nature photography tours all over the world for small groups of all experience levels. You can find more of Van Oosten’s work on his website and Instagram. This article was also published here.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2018/09/11/nikon-z7-field-report-too-many-good-things-to-not-like-it/

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